Kirsty McGregor is no stranger to remote living. Before moving to New Zealand about 10 years ago, she lived on a cattle station in far western Queensland where the nearest social event might be “six or eight hours’ drive away” and, on the way, she’d “pass through little towns with maybe 30 people living in them”. However, the sense of isolation she felt when she moved with her husband, a dairy farmer, to his sixth-generation family farm in a remote area of Horowhenua “came as a shock”.
‘It was very different. I struggled quite a bit, feeling isolated and trying to find a sense of community.” McGregor realised she wasn’t alone: “Other women living rurally were feeling isolated.
” What McGregor did about it wasn’t typical: in 2020, with “no experience in publishing”, she started , a quarterly magazine that shares the “great source of comfort” of telling women’s stories. Apart from the publication of some stories on the s website, the magazine is a physical product, McGregor explained. “It’s about physically holding something – you know, taking a moment for yourself.
” The photography featured alongside the stories is also an important part of the aesthetic, she said. “Beautiful and authentic photography representing rural life is really important. Stories are elevated when you put beautiful imagery together with the words – it has so much more impact.
” McGregor, who worked in Wairarapa for a time before settling on the West Coas.
